WORS #8 - Subaru Cup

It has been a week since Subaru Cup. We even had another WORS race since. That is the month of August for mountain biking in the Midwest though. It heats up and goes fast with racing every weekend.

Subaru Cup is quite the event. A large National Series race combined with the largest state series. It brings in a lot of local riders but because of the National tag brings most of the National guys too. It is also one of the only races we do in a year where the separate just us Pro's to duke it out on a mountain.

Another unique feature of the weekend is it is 2 days of racing. Cross Country on Saturday and Short Track on Sunday.




Cross Country
Coming off a good Ore to Shore and having good fitness for it I figure I might be able to carry over a ride into the Subaru Cup. What I didn't expect is my mind and body to tell me you put me through too much the last 8 weeks and I'm not coming today. Ore to Shore was such a target of mine I put a lot of physical and mental preparation into it and I suffered an Ore to Shore hangover duruing the XC race.

I had a decent call up for not having any UCI points. Somewhere around 20th out of 50 riders. My start wasn't too bad but I wasn't all that aggressive as I didn't want to burn the first match before the start climb. At the top of the climb the race was one long line of riders from 1st all the way back. I must have been around 20-25, not too bad. We stayed in the line and I followed TJ Woodruff and Mike P. for the entirety of the first lap. I didn't want to let a wheel go because that meant a several guys coming by. I had to ride outside of my comfort level too many times and the 1st lap zapped the little I had. Lap 2 was a decline, lap 3 was a disaster, and lap 4 was recovery. I had last quite a few spots up to that point but I continued to dig for what I had. Finally I lap 5 I found some juice and was able to get a decent final 2 laps. My middle laps dropped me down to 30th. At the end I was happy to make the cut and not get pulled. This was a small victory in the end as I had day where you battle "how good can you be when your bad."

Short Track
With little motivation from yesterdays blow up and tender legs I didn't know what to expect in the Short Track. The good thing is no matter how my legs feel after a hard effort I'm usually pretty strong on day 2. Because of my finish on day 1 my call up for the STXC was near the back. Immediately after the gun a pile up happened near the front. This is one time that being near the back was beneficial. It allowed me to react to the pile up and go around. I was instantly shot into the top 15 on Chris P. wheel. Chris had felt good the day before so I figured he was a great wheel to hold onto. Slowly the strong riders from the pile up started to make up ground. As they were coming around I was feeling pretty good but was close to my limit. I was tempted to go but figured I better ride my race for the first 1/2. Chris jumped one of the wheels to give it a shot at moving up and I had to let it go. A good decision on my part because as the race continued on I got a bit stronger. The final few laps Isac N. caught me and pulled me around for several laps. With 2 to go I sold my legs to failure and went for it. I gained 3 spots on the last lap making it up to 21st.


The best part of the weekend was the company that was kept. I stayed with great people over the weekend. I could have finished DFL both days and the weekend would have been just as fun because of them all. Thank you to the Peariso's and the Adventure 212 crew for making me a part of the team and family for 3 days. A crew that knows how to make hard racing fun.